Beefed Up Battle School

Did the Strategos or Polemarch order those upgrades to Battle School from the time of the first trailer to the latest TV spot?

First Trailer Battle School....

...and the latest Battle School upgrades. 

Hopefully they have some gun emplacements and some escort fighters on that thing now, after all, you are housing your greatest strategist there. #Militarytarget

Ender's Shadow Poster

 

From Ender's Ansible:

Possible ‘Ender’s Shadow’ Television Show

Still like to see a movie though.....

 

The Darkside of Ender's Game Movie Promotion

There is a new and final Ender's Game Movie Poster that will be coming out today over at IGN.com
Which I am sure will be polished and beautiful, but I still would like to see some promotion that caters to the darker elements of the story and to Ender's character.

OK maybe that is a bit too much.... It's a sci-fi movie not a horror show. The background image of the blood flowing into the drain comes from the work of this photographer, Ross Golden.

Check out some of his awesome work.

When I read the book as a younger man, I thought Ender was totally justified in his actions of taking lives in the defense of his own and humanity. Upon rereading multiple times, I don't feel the same as I did then. Which is weird because I now understand how the sentiment of humanity turned from seeing Ender as its savior to someone who is the object of scorn. Time to reread Speaker for the Dead with different eyes and heart.

That was one of moral questions that confronts you in the book that I hope is not watered down in the midst of the lush visuals in the movie. RIP Stilson, Bonzo, and the whole Formic Race.

 

 

Monitoring For Your Safety...The International Fleet #TrustInUs

Ender's Game Propaganda Posters! I like how this is shaping up!

Over at the IF-Sentinel.com site there has been some new and welcome updates. First, a MUCH better site layout and graphics and also some new propaganda posters encouraging everyone to join the IF to fight the Buggers, oops, I mean Formics. Take a look.

As you well know I did some fan propaganda posters latter half of 2012... I am pleased that some of the themes of the posters that I derived and resonated with me and other Ender's Game fans from the book also made it into the Movie marketing campaign. I hope to see more!

 

Although, not a propaganda poster, I do like how the Flash Suits for the movie are more in line with how I envisioned them back in 2001. Being more like a motorcycle suit, slender, not so bulky as portrayed in the comic adaptation.

Mazer is my Enemy

At least that's what he wants you to think, Ender.

Battleschool Bound

Readjusted pic from Hailee Steinfeld who is playing Petra in the Ender's Game Movie.

Antsy to see more imagery related to the Ender's Game movie? I got you!

I detect a general sense of tension in the Ender's Game Fandom (Really it's just me) about the lack of imagery surrounding the upcoming film adaptation.I thought I remedy that by scraping the Internets for any pictures that might be related to the production that we haven't seen yet.

Lo and behold.... I found this gem of what I believe is a corridor in the Battle School.

Picture removed at a nice request from the Movie PR dept.

Yeah, I know its small.

 I found it on a website belonging to one of the movie's Art Director's Clint Wallace (www.clintwallace.com). It was on the front page of the site under the "Current Projects" section. The title of the image is "BattleSchool_s"

Still that's a small picture, let's blow it up through Photoshop and examine further. Ooooooh.

Picture removed at a nice request from the Movie PR dept.

But I do have a picture of  a represenative 3D model I made from the picture.

Much better, but how do I know that this is from the movie?  Well, from matching up elements I have seen in other official pictures. Remember this picture from the production blog this past year of Roberto Orci on set?

 Certain elements on that picture match the one I found on Clint's website:

Picture removed at a nice request from the Movie PR dept.

Come on, don't you see it?!

The second set of images I found on the Internet that might be related to the Ender's Game movie, comes from the website of Brett Phillps (http://brettphillipsart.com). He is listed on the IMDB movie page as a model maker in the art department. 

Picture removed at a nice request from the Movie PR dept.

This is just one of a series of pictures of a foam board (?) model he made that is listed under his "Ender's Game" work. (Direct link here). I'm not sure what part of the set it corresponds too, but I am going to make a guess and say that it might have something to do with Fleet Command on the Eros facility. 

Enjoy, launchies! This post is sure to self destruct in a day or two...

It's Destructed...

Told you so...

Barracks Analysis Part 2: Graff's Symbol

Back to the Barracks again. AAAATTTTTEEENNTIONNNN!

Lets focus on the symbol on Graff's right shoulder.

 

Through the magic of Photoshop I have managed to zoom in and then recreate the symbol.

 

You can recognize the movie version of the I. F. Logo at top center, with a cluster of nested inverted chevrons located below. Is this the symbol of the movie version of the Battle School symbol, or is it a sign of "Colonel" Graff's rank? Guess we will have to wait and see with more still releases when they occur.

 

Barracks Room Analysis-Part 1: Size and Layout

I am about to add some more analysis of the latest production still that will focus more on the room structure and layout.

First, let's look at the Hi-Res Still one more time, which we are assuming shows the Launchie Barracks of the Battle School. Launchies are all lined up next to their bunks while Graff (Ford), is giving Ender (Butterfield) the run down of who is boss...

"I've done the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs, out run Star Destroyers, killed aliens on multiple planets, blew up Death Stars, been frozen in carbonite, taken out off world rogue replicants, and beat up Nazis, all before you were a thought.."... I digress.

Back to the set, which is futuristic and functional with design elements consistent with the style of production Designer Ben Proctor. On a side note read my previous post about Ben's style

I just was wondering how big this Barracks is and how many Launchies you could fit into it? From the discussion on other fan sites the figures have ranged from 12 to 16 Launchies.

To get an estimate of size of the Barracks and how it was laid out I used a program called Sketchup made by Trimble. It is a 3D modeling program that has a nifty "Match Photo" feature that allows you to place a 2D picture in a 3D environment and create a 3D model to match a photo or to match an existing 3D model to a photo's context. (See in the image below)

After matching the photo to the models  I can remove the image and just be left with a scale 3D representation of the Launchie Barracks. It's not fully detailed as the picture, but it should give you a good sense of about the room size and how items are arranged in the room. Pretty cool, right?

From my estimation I think there are at least four other bunks and 8 other lockers toward the back of the room you can't see in the still because they are blocked by actors and bunks in the foreground. I believe that the Barrracks can hold a grand total of 20 Launchies (6 bunks we can see + 4 bunks we can't see) X (2 Launchies per bunk) = 20! Of course I reserve the right to be wrong. Also, this is only based on what I see in the picture. There is alot I don't know, for example that we are looking at the Barracks from the front to the back. It could be the middle of the room for all we know.  

In the picture above  you can see how I would arrange 10 bunks and 20 lockers in the 3D model of the Barracks. also notice the numbers on the floor that the Launchies would position themselves in during an inspection.

 

I also created a walk through video of my model using Google Earth,

That's all for now. Let me know what you think?

Merry Christmas, Ender!

 

For some reason this Christmas Card didn't make it to Ender.

Graff, you wouldn't have anything to do with that?

Finally A "Official" Vision of Ender's Game

At long last it appears that the cogs are starting to turn on the marketing machine for the Ender's Game Movie with Summit Entertainment dropping a still from the upcoming release with an exclusive article with Entertainment Weekly. Bask in it's magnificence.

This scene shows Battle School students in their barracks with Harrison Ford as Colonel Graff giving Asa Butterfield as Ender a stern look and probably some chastisement ala Full Metal Jacket style. I can almost hear the scene now:

This image gives us a better look at the scenery for the movie, and yes, it is not like the book. There are a couple of fan sites that delve into that more deeply into the comparison as to what is described in the book. (EnderNews, Ender's Ansible ).

From my interpretation this is how I envisioned the barracks:

I will say that the colors, structures, and room brightness of the official still reminds me of the layout of Avatar. Which is not surprising since one of the Concept Artists for that movie, Ben Proctor, is also one of the two Production Designers for Ender's Game. In the mean time while we wait for more stills if you want to give yourself some insight to the visual style the movie will take see his Avatar portfolio

Here's a little example below. I chose this image because it had beds, bright lighting, and a color scheme like the still above.

Still if you look through further through his Avatar portfolio you can see some designs that would make great looking battle simulators that Ender and the Jeesh use on Eros. For example:

THIS OR THE OTHER BEN PROCTOR IMAGES I DISPLAY IN THIS POST ARE NOT FROM THE ENDER'S GAME MOVIE. Let me be clear about that because I've gotten a note from Summit about some of my previous speculations about the movie artwork before. Since this type of setup was already used in Avatar, more than likely we will see something different for the immersive combat simulator in Ender's Game.

That's it for this post. Until next time remember....

DAP IS MY MOM. Red yellow yellow.

Ender's Game Movie Countdown Calendar- Free to Download

The Ender's Game movie is set to release in one year! To commemorate this event and give the fandom a cool way to countdown to the occasion, I have put together a Countdown Calendar featuring my fan art. You can download it for free right by clicking right here: (.pdf file about 4 MB)

These are a couple images conatined in the calendar

In addition to my artwork, it features the birthdays of most of the important cast members and producers, as well as links to popular sites related to Ender's Game. Enjoy, and give me some feedback! Thanks!

Quantum Creation FX and the Ender's Game Movie

Strolling through the IMDB page for Ender's Game. I came across and interesting company that is credited for creating "Specialty Costumes" for the movie. That company is called Quantum Creation FX. Quantum is headed by Christian Beckman and resides in Burbank, CA. Since 2005 they have specialized in building costumes and special effects for the  movie and television industries. They strive to offer an "exceptional product at economical prices" but with a "high degree of excellence" from "award winning artists, constant motivation, and individualized attention." 

This company has a pretty impressive resume. They have made the suits for TRON: LEGACY

 ....They made Suits for the STAR TREK reboot

 To me only make sense that "Specialty Costumes" = Ender's Game Flash Suits! So look on the images above with some expectation of the quality we will see when they appear in the movie.
Now take a look at a image of a battle suit I made up from one of their previous designs from TRON: LEGACY!

More old Ender's Game Work-Formics and Marines

As I clean out old files from my computers and portfolios, I keep running across old Ender's Game artwork. I drew these pictures probably around 2001.

I always pictured the Formics to be insect looking, but walking upright with strong ant features. The Hive Queen I pictured her having a complex antenna array on her head that looked like a crown but functioned to broadcast her commands to her workers.

The IF Marines were pretty basic I just channeled what I saw from the SPace Marines in Aliens.

 

CAUTION! Mind your head LOW CEILING!

ENDER/MAZER FACE OFF!

The Hegemon by Speaker for the Dead